Rating: 
Summary: Cheerfully playing at being Poor
Review: Three English children in turn-of-the-century London are suddenly obliged to leave their home and take up rural residence at Three Chimneys cottage. They are additionally confused by the unexplained disappearance of their father, who was falsely accused of espionage and wrongfully incarcerated. The kids seek solace in their new life by becoming familiar with unexplored means of transportation: the canal and the railroad. Their plucky mother undertakes to write novels while she homeschools her inquisitive offspring: 12-year-old Roberta (Bobbie), 10-year-old Peter, and 7-year-old Phyllis. These children quarrel and squabble, play and dream like normal kids, while secretly harboring fears about their absent father. Could he be dead, since no one was allowed to inform them of the painful truth? Would their calm, loving mother permit them to live a lie? During the next 6 months these decent kids gradually carve out a niche for themsleves in the lives (and ultimately the hearts) of the local citizens--particularly railway personnel. As they expand their social horizons, they increase their knowledge of the ways and quirks of the iron horse. They even learn lessons in tasteful charity and Christian compassion, as they exist in a kind of emotional limbo--just waiting for some unknown event. Despite Nesbit's admittedly quaint literary style (with many asides addresesd to the reader, and obvious predilection for one of her characters), THE RAILWAY CHILDREN will transport readers back to a much simpler time--an era of true family values and homespun social virtues. Don't expect the fantasy elements of THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET in this gentle story; just relax and enjoy a journey into the past, when chidren were taught to wait and hope. This is a book for children of all ages, inscribed on the tablets of Home and Hearth. And who is the mysterious but kindly old gentleman on their beloved Green Dragon?
| 
